AMD Continues Work On Enhancing GPU Support With Xen Virtualization

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Continues Work On Enhancing GPU Support With Xen Virtualization

In recent months AMD open-source graphics driver engineers seem to be taking more interest in supporting the Xen hypervisor with their graphics hardware. It's not clear yet externally if this is just due to customer demand or other yet-to-be-announced interest in Xen...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-GPU-Xen-Hypervisor-S3

[oiaohm]

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/citrix/

Motivation makes sense. When you consider Xen is solution those using Nvidia hardware have rolled out a lot. You you want mix AMD high end cards with Nvidia high end cards in a hypervisor solution of existing installs that were setup with Nvidia the odds are you are running into Xen so Xen compatibility comes important.

[dylanmtaylor]

My guess would be they are trying to target AWS, since they use Xen virtualization.

[luno]

My guess would be they are trying to target AWS, since they use Xen virtualization.

I thought aws moved to kvm https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/...loud_go_faster

[oiaohm]

I thought aws moved to kvm https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/07/aws_writes_new_kvm_based_hypervisor_to_make_its_cl oud_go_faster

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/

Q. Will all EC2 instances use the Nitro Hypervisor?

Eventually all new instance types will use the Nitro Hypervisor, but in the near term, some new instance types will use Xen depending on the requirements of the platform.

Q. Will AWS continue to invest in its Xen-based hypervisor?

Yes. As AWS expands its global cloud infrastructure, EC2’s use of its Xen-based hypervisor will also continue to grow. Xen will remain a core component of EC2 instances for the foreseeable future. AWS is a founding member of the Xen Project since its establishment as a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project and remains an active participant on its Advisory Board. As AWS expands its global cloud infrastructure, EC2’s Xen-based hypervisor also continues to grow. Therefore EC2’s investment in Xen continues to grow, not shrink.

Nitro is the kvm based hypervisor.
Nothings that black and white luno. VDI(Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) on aws you still find Xen there. Running something like web services say hello to kvm/nitro. AWS is not one uniform hypervisor solution.

Reduced usage of Xen does not mean a party stops using Xen. AMD to target the largest segment VDI market does need to support Xen.

[lejeczek]

I've recently been playing with - https://xcp-ng.org/ - which seems quite nice, have their place in the whole big mix of hyper-visors. One bit which puzzles though is, that kernel being quite oldish.

[Quackdoc]

We have a lot of promising things to look forward too, I really hope venus comes along, Venus will allow running many more VMs with virtio-gpu in a secure manor. it won't be sr-iov perf, but it will be close enough that you could easily replace a cluster of firepros with a cluster of high preformance desktop class graphics cards depending on your use case. and KVM based VMM servers are severly lacking, proxmox is, well frankly trash, orvirt is a pain, unraid I find lacking in many ways etc.

[OneTimeShot]

Xen support can't be high on the list of what people are asking for... but yay, I guess...

[oiaohm]

Xen support can't be high on the list of what people are asking for... but yay, I guess...

It depends on what people. General users the Xen support stuff is not that high up there. VDI people looking at AMD vs Nvidia Xen is kind of more important.

You have to think what parties are going to pay money to have developers work on the Linux kernel/hypvervisor support. VDI people people are more likely to pay than the general users. This is why I am not surprised by this this is "show me the money" for why it would happen.

[Quackdoc]

Xen support can't be high on the list of what people are asking for... but yay, I guess...

it's pretty high up for some, xen is a great and very thoroughly battle tested hypervisor and this being lacking is a pain point for sure